


ascension

by desolategalaxy



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, Child Abuse, Complete, Dadster, Determination (Undertale), No Dialogue, Origin Story, Parent W. D. Gaster, True Lab (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 10:26:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desolategalaxy/pseuds/desolategalaxy
Summary: DETERMINATION melted monsters.Perhaps that was what made it so very,very,very interesting.





	ascension

Doctor W.D Gaster’s demise was a funny thing.

It seemed as if the event was erased from the public. The Royal Scientist had left more than a handprint on the state of the Kingdom, yet he hadn’t been mentioned after the incident. His downfall was preventable, the self-spiralling of a madman, and even he had been aware of that. A man shattered across space and time, melted along with his memory…

Doctor Gaster’s end would begin with the unfortunate deaths of the two children of the King and Queen.

Chara and Asriel had not deserved the fate that had grasped them so tightly. King Asgore’s grief was more than enough to shake the entire Kingdom. Queen Toriel’s departure left yet another emptiness in its wake. It seemed as if the monsters had lost everything, banished to the Underground, the Royal family having fallen apart. Doctor Gaster was a piece of the only hope the population had left. 

King Asgore had promised that himself and the good Doctor would find a way to breach the barrier to the Surface.

He had promised to avenge his children with his right hand man.

The barrier was locked. It required the power of human SOULs, seven of them, to successfully open. That… or the power of a merged human SOUL with one of a monster. The power that would unleash, though…

King Asgore wasn’t willing to attempt that.

Though, he was willing to use the soul of a fallen monster. There was only one issue with that, though…

The SOULs of monsters would not’ persist after death.

Over the years, King Asgore and Doctor Gaster collected a large number of human SOULs. It seemed, though, right as they’d nearly reached the number of SOULs they needed… humans stopped falling. It was as if they avoided the one entrance to the Underground that they were offered. That was no issue, though. It didn’t need to be. DETERMINATION was a funny thing.

The human SOULs willingness to persist after death… could they harness it?

The experiment began.

Doctor Gaster took on two assistants. Alphys had been more than eager to work under the Doctor. Absolutely everyone had been clawing for the opportunity to work with the genius that had created the CORE. She showed a certain aptitude, however, for the specific field that Doctor Gaster needed assistance in.

Sans was the Doctor’s second choice, of course. His son had been around through all of his breakthroughs. There was no one that knew the Underground and it’s needs as well as the Doctor, and who better to shadow him than his own offspring? Doctor Gaster had taken special care in his creation, after all. Every second of the young skeleton’s growth had been monitored.

Growth that would soon be stunted, but that part of the story had yet to come.

Doctor Gaster, Sans, and Alphys had all started with a beautiful gleam lit in their eyes. Hope. DETERMINATION was tangible. That was all of the motivation the trio had needed in their early days. Of course, Sans doubted his father, as all teenagers did, but nothing could be proven. They had yet to do more than hypothesize, after all. Their first experiments would take place on a few fallen monsters, monsters that were soon to turn to dust…

It had seemed, at first, that their experimentation was fruitless.

Even the sunflower that Alphys had injected with DETERMINATION showed no signs of a will to live.

Doctor Gaster hadn’t given up hope, though.

The monsters had yet to turn to dust. Their souls were inaccessible, but their bodies were intact. That meant something. The Doctor made sure that Alphys and Sans kept a constant eye on those experimented with. It had been worth his while. Days after the initial injection? The first monster opened his eyes. The second came soon after.

Doctor Gaster was thrilled.

Their original experimentation had failed, but that could wait. DETERMINATION clearly did something to monsters. Something was… off, yet Alphys had insisted on informing everyone of their family members regaining their lives. The human SOULs were sent back to King Asgore. It was a happy end.

Of course, that lasted until the morning after the calls were made.

Doctor Gaster awoke to the terrified cries of both his teenage son and his young assistant. The monsters were melting together. 

DETERMINATION melted monsters.

Gaster had witnessed the effects of the substance, far more tangible than he had ever imagined, with a giddiness in his core that wasn’t quite… morally sound. He’d gained an undeterred willingness to subject himself to the state of being that was seemingly put aside only for the human populous. In fact, that was the majority of the reason that Doctor W.D. Gaster had been so driven to experiment with the substance in various dosages.

Humans had enough. They had taken the Surface away from the monster population. They did not deserve the abilities they had. They did not deserve the ability to persist after death. The monsters deserved at least a fighting chance at surviving to reach the Surface again. The mere concept alone was thrilling to Gaster.

He had devoted every second of his life to the DETERMINATION project after the Royal children had passed.

It was only fitting that it was taken into his own hands after being deemed a failure.

The experiments continued quietly. Sans was the first monster after the initial failure to be injected with DETERMINATION. The young skeleton had kicked and screamed all of the way to the table that he had be strapped down on. Doctor Gaster hadn’t seen the need for the panic that his son had exhibited.

It wasn’t as if he was getting a full dose.

The dosage that Sans was given was one low enough to keep him alive, to keep him intact, but it had utterly stunted his growth. His HP had dropped to a maximum of one, but Doctor Gaster wasn’t concerned with that. He’d taught his son to fight well. He wouldn’t allow himself to die, he was sure.

Besides, Sans was… different, after that dosage.

His magic usage was unparalleled. His reflexes were lovely. It seemed that DETERMINATION did have a bit of a positive effect on monsters, after all.

Doctor Gaster had made up his mind.

Papyrus was almost done developing anyhow. Sans hardly left his unconscious, undeveloped, brother’s side after his injection. The little skeleton had been in the process of being created for months at that point. Doctor Gaster wasn’t much concerned with seeing more than the first days of the younger sibling’s existence. He was sure that Sans would manage if his experiment failed.

Doctor W.D. Gaster had all of the DETERMINATION he had needed anyhow.

He was going to inject himself with it.

Everything that he had left over from his original experimentation was going to be injected into himself. He had even built a specialized machine to do the job. The Royal Scientist was filled with joy at the thought that he would be the first, the only, monster to experience mass amounts of DETERMINATION. Of course, he was aware of the risks that he was taking upon himself.

The day after Papyrus’ eyes opened, he had Alphys strap him down to the table and turn on the machine.

The heat was searing. It was as if everything he’d experienced and everything he’d yet to experience was happening at once. He could see, hear, feel everything around him- everything that had and would happen- at once. It was exhilarating. He was not dead, no, in fact, he was more alive than he had been in his entire life.

He could feel his body being pulled apart, dripping, but that was fine.

The Doctor didn’t need it anyhow.

Sans’ attack, one he had never seen so powerful before, was what saved him. It was ironic, really, due to his son’s intentions of ending his life. The Gaster Blaster managed to push Doctor Gaster’s body apart, to disconnect the melting pieces and put him into a state of nonexistence.

He was everywhere.

He was nowhere.

Perhaps this was ascension. Perhaps Gods were real. Perhaps he had become one.

Either way, the Doctor would go unremembered. His death, whilst announced in vague terms, was the last that Sans and Alphys had spoken of the late Royal Scientist. Asgore had been pushed further into mourning. Papyrus grew up parented solely by his older brother. Alphys had taken the burden of the position the late Royal Scientist had left bare.

Doctor Gaster’s presence would be one that would haunt his sons and the King for the years to come. He had never truly gone, after all. 

Perhaps that wasn’t a good thing for anyone.


End file.
